1st Set: They start off with a great CR&S that just gave me the willies. Any show, in my opinion, that starts off with CR&S is going to be a good one. They don’t disappoint with the follow-up song MAMU. Of course, this is a toss-off song but every once in a while, like tonight, they play the fuck out of it. Great stuff and we’re just 20 minutes in. The MABM starts to go to the places they will later take it. This is the beginning of this song. They have lighting problems before Next Time You See Me. NTYSM has Pig on his harmonica slaying the place. He is loud and he is in charge. He threatens to hog-tie the lighting guy. CHINA/RIDER is a funkaliscious treat that moves into the sublime and brings us back out with a finesse that only the Dead can do.
2nd Set: A rip-roaring SUGAR MAGNOLIA starts us off with a blazing SSDD. It’s not that they are transporting us to another realm tonight, it’s that the songs are played with intensity, it feels like they are coming at us. Same with SECOND THAT EMOTION. A Big sound. TRUCKIN is feeling like its’ getting it’s sea legs but the jam at the end is really nice. Seemed like they were going to do the snake coil but the song just kinda ended. HARD TO HANDLE gets a nice treatment in the jam but they are still working up to that killer jam they get later. LOSER has been the most consistent song this year. They introduced it strong and it keeps getting better. The meat of this show is GOOD LOVIN. Billy’s drum solo is wild and longer than usual. The jam coming out is bold and stomps all over the place. Nice 20+ min. version. Great the whole way through.

Was at this one. Remember the good vibes, great rapport with the audience, great spirit in the house. Strong, confident playing and singing, some ragged but right, and a lot spot on. Cold night at the end of a cold winter and lots of hippies from upstate came out of hibernation that night.

SUNY Cortland Alumni here. I was on the entertainment committee for this concert: made and distributed posters in Cortland, Ithaca and Syracuse for this concert. At the concert, wore Dead t-shirts that we designed ourselves. Our job was to ensure safety of audience participants. We had flashlights and had to shine it on anyone who was smoking weed or anything else. The field house was brand new and the college was fearful it would go up in smoke. Needless to say our efforts were in vain. So we took off our t-shirts, got rid of our flash lights and joined the crowd... The concert was fantastic!

I had this show on an unlabeled tape for years, but thanks to the announcement for Fred Burns to come to the stage, it was easy to identify this as the show. I always wondered, what were they paging this guy for? Whatever happened to him? Love Pig telling off the spotlight operator. I sure wish I were hippie at this show back in those days, must have been some great times. A good show, though not one of the greats for it's time.

The first set that is in circulation rocks!
This show has a unique quality to it. It permeates every second of this performance. A raw intensity, concise and direct, energized show. This show makes me want to stay up all night gnashing my teeth, but is sweet as only Jerry &co. could be!
Some of my favorite versions of the whole 1st set. Needs a remix!

I was there. Got my degree at Cortland and that day was so special with folks from all over coming to see the band. What a party.
I just walked down the hill from my dorm and what a scene.
I never forgot it nor the day it happened. Even saved the poster advertising the show. I remember such a crowd surge that the door fell off the hinge. I also remember the announcement where if we didn't move back, the netting on the top would be released and trap us all. That freaked me out but the music was quite wonderful.
I didn't think they mentioned this show at the SUNY college history book because it did not fit the straight laced atmosphere that Cortland was supposedly known for.
I am proud to be an alumni.

Hi
This is Jack, those of you who know me, yes I am that one that produced this concert along with the many other great shows we had at SUNY Cortland in those days including the first ever Billy Joel concert (March 1973) when he went out on tour with a big agency in NYC and then refused to go on the stage at first in a second concert in 73-74, Aerosmith, Beach Boys, Earth Wind and Fire, and lots of others! Anyway, this Dead show was legendary, let me set the record straight. Pigpen was not with women, he was a very sick dude already on the day of our show and died not long thereafter. The road manager was the legendary Sam
Cuttler, who was the road manager of the Stones at Altamont. Got a first hand review of that incident and all sides of the story! The show did not get "cut off". The Dead quit after approximately 7 hours of showtime. Their were seven bad drug trips that went to Cortland Memorial. The town later condemed the event as "Unamerican". Crazy stuff I guess! The show was one of their longest. Fast food places all over town stayed open all night long and had record breaking nights. The 6,000 seat venue had 7,300 people in it! Yes, it was a great party. Written on the eve of the 40th Anniversary of this event!
Hello to all SUNY Cortland Alumni from the era of the great concerts....1965 to 1990. Please note that SUNY Cortland Alunmi and other supporters should be aware that Cortland is Celebrating the Era of Concerts at the College by a memorial statue and other events. If you are interested please contact the Alumni Office or this writer.
Keep truckin
Jack

I remember the show more for the atmosphere than the music, but after a listen, it was pretty good. It was a small venue, but still lots of room to dance and move around. Nothing like shows in the later years in huge stadiums.
It was as much a party as it was a concert for everyone involved. Actually, it was the night before my birthday, so it was my birthday party. There have been comments about a lack of organ, and the reason was, that when Pigpen wasn't doing a tune, he was flagging chicks out of the crowd to take backstage. There was also a lot of sniffing off the top of beer cans for the Dead.
Other than the hasty departure because they were closing the joint down, a grand time was had by all, and great to revisit it today.
I'd also need to add a comment regarding the initial post in this thread saying "coming on the heels of the incredible Princeton University concert from the night before (maybe they were tired?). Most of the numbers find the Dead in their bar band mode, with prominent, loud guitars, demonic bass lines from Lesh, steady drumming, and virtually inaudible organ" Perhaps the poster was the one that was tired. Having listened to both shows, the only thing really distinguishing Princeton was that it contained the whole Brooklyn Bridge rap, which Pig never got a chance to finish here. As far as loud prominent guitars and demonic bass lines, isn't that where the Dead came from. Someone's confused or prefers the 80's and 90's to the 60's and seventies. As far as a lack of organ, as previously stated, Pigpen was "busy" with other organs. He was always there when it mattered!

I'm finding the recording quality of the songs I've listened to so far (China Cat) to be superior to most spring '71 recordings. Phil's bass is very prominent (I like!) and Jerry and Bobby each have their fair share of the mix. It's really nice to be able to hear Bobby's contributions in this era of the band - single drummer, no keyboard/organ.
Also the banter before and after Next Time You See Me is priceless. "Mr. Electrician Man, if you mess with the lights one more time, we gonna hog tie you and throw yo ass out of this place!" - Pigpen

Awsome 1st set. Listen to the funky i know you rider. Bobbys mic seems kinda loud the first few songs in the 2nd. Maybe its just me.

another red dragon here.great show from a tiny venue.if you download real player media player then you can down load this show all be it in mp3 format.if you right click right above the volume control it weill ask if you want to down load this video.you can download this to your real player library.if you let the stream for each song fully download then click download it only takes a couple of seconds to download.you can do a whole show in like half an hour.good luck.

This show was what turned me on to the Grateful dead. When I was 13 my step father brought me this tape back from a business trip to NYC form a guy he worked with out there. At this point I had never even heard of the Grateful Dead. I use to get high and bike around and listen to this tape over and over again.
At this point, I was hooked to the dead. And have never stopped enjoying.
Does anyone know where I can download this show. I have lost the tape and this is only a streaming show.

As a Cortland alum I thought it would be cool to have. After listening to it once I love it. Does anyone know how I can download this show to a CD?

Sweet, sweet show...
Being a Cortland State alum has nothing to do with it. The field house is crazy- and Bobby's banter to the 'Space Craft Assembly Building' is a pretty close comparison.
Rumor has it- the whole campus was pretty well whacked for this one, and the crowd response seems a little more WILD than usual.
I only wish I could download this one- the only copy is a horrible cassette copy I aquired in the early 90s at an Albany show. I hold onto it, since it's the only version I have.
But I am too scared to play it for fear she'll break!!!

An absolute 5. These guys broke out a pure west coast beauty in New Jersey at Princeton. They actually come into some great equiptment for this show in Cortland. Phil's base is electric and he's given the okay to deliver on the jive to upstate NY-- a stones throw from NYC. Cortland is CNY...the birthplace of Dio, an absolute pitstop for Van Halen and Metallica in the 80's. Caffery and Rainbow. With a tangible music scene I feel like these guys pull a southern rock / new york hip - top notch show here.

Okay, I don't know who these previous two bozo's are or how they got on this bus but I am here to tell you THIS SHOW IS HOT. The Dead sound great. When the Dead came to upstate NY they'd always get new Macintosh amps from the factory. Sounds like they had all new equipment this night.
I listened to the first few minutes of each song while I downloaded Them, Billy is in the pocket and sounds great. This is THE GRATEFUL DEAD with Pigen and how anybody in their right mind could give a show with Pigpen any less than 5 STARS is beyond me, but there you see it...I am not halucinating brothers and sisters two bozo's with no clue. I dont' know about you, but I am giving this show 5 STARS. PIGPEN IS HOT! And the boy's are in the groove man. This show reminds me of the 10-04-70 show at Winterland or the way the boys played that night, I should say.
This is the Grateful Dead rockin' the house. You can here its not a HUGE VENUE. It's like a private party of friends. It's 1971 man, Nixon is in the White House, and the Hippies and Freaks are at the show in upstate NY with the DEAD.
This is a cozy show in a small venue in a college town, the "turn the lights down" banter from Phil and Jerry is classic period stuff.
I have downloaded hundreds of shows and THIS ONE IS A MUST HAVE...THE BAND SOUNDS TIGHT, FUNKY AND IN THE POCKET. The sound is fantastic, okay it has a tiny tiny tiny, little tape hiss, but hey man it's authentic, and crisp and you can hear everything very nice. THANKS FOR THE LOVE.
I WISH I WAS AT THIS SHOW...I was 16 in 1971, I should have begged borrowed or STOLEN to get to this show, I was in NYC at the time. BUT THANKS TO JERRY GARCIA AND THE GRATEFUL DEAD I CAN HEAR THIS SHOW EVERYDAY FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE IF I CHOOSE.
DOWNLOAD THIS SHOW NOW. I DID. TANKS FOR THE LOVE.
THANKS FOR THE LOVE. THANKS FOR THE LOVE.

,and I think it is pretty good.i always liked the Cold Rain and on Loser we get two guitar solos.It may not be the best ,but it definately helped this head to get it

Overall an unnoteworthy show, especially coming on the heels of the incredible Princeton University concert from the night before (maybe they were tired?). Most of the numbers find the Dead in their bar band mode, with prominent, loud guitars, demonic bass lines from Lesh, steady drumming, and virtually inaudible organ. Highlights include "Hard To Handle", with the climax occuring around the 7:30 mark, and "Good Lovin", which has a good jam and a somewhat incomplete "bidness man" rap from Pigpen-the band continued to jam for a while and played the reprise without bringing the story to a conclusion.